Lecture 7.docx

Lecture 7- March 4, 2013 Nonreactive Qualitative Methods “Nonreactive”  Nonreactive- measures in which people being studied are unaware that they are in a study o No potential reaction from research participants because they are unaware o Doesn’t affect participant’s behaviour  Historical-comparative  Qualitative content analysis  No interaction with people involved Historical-comparative Method  Research questions appropriate for this method: o Example: weber’s “the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism”  Weber interested in role of ideas  If ideas can have impact on other aspects of society  Comparing different socities in terms of religious beliefs o Unit of analysis is the society o Can be large scale projects (different societies, across different times) Types of historical evidence  Primary  Secondary- more commonly used o Include work of historians who already studied primary sources o **synthesis of primary sources o Saves time and also less expensive o Issues: historian may have particular biases  Running records- records maintained by organizations o i.e. church records of marriages  recollections- memoirs, autobiographies o internal criticism- ensuring accuracy and authencity of an account o